Making Waves 🌊

 Time for a finished project!    Woven on the Megado that doesn't live here anymore, a month or two ago.  It has been so busy here and  this one slipped my mind!    With all the studio rearranging, it was folded and put away....

I wove this pattern a couple of years ago on my old Spring loom and enjoyed it very much. I could see some potential for treadling variations and colour pairings.  I wound a 4 colour gradation from royal blue to deep teal green on my warping mill. It does take some time but I quite enjoy the process.

The warp yarns were 8/2 tencel as they have so many lovely rich  colours:  royal blue, azure, greyed teal and dark teal. The first scarf I used salmon which looks very terracotta to me.   The sett was the usual 24 epi. 

Its a very rich looking mix and there is irridescence!

When it came time to weave up the second scarf and I had to choose a weft colour, I was stumped! Last time I wove this pattern, I used black for one and coral for the other.     I auditioned a few candidates and finally chose lemongrass..... and a different treadling for a whole new look. 

I would have to say it's my favourite of the two.  Sometimes you just have to push through and test your comfort colour barriers!   😊

Here's the draft  which is 8 shafts and I found it on Pinterest, with no credit given to who ever designed it sadly.   The colour gradation was done by me using Fiberworks for Mac. 

Irons in the Fire

I  like a clean orderly studio.  But its far from that right now...

I simply have too much on the go and its difficult to know where to start or what to finish.   I finally got the second diamond shawl woven off.    I even wove off  seven or eight yards of towels on the Megado!  I struggled with the loom,  the brake, and found myself having to tighten nuts and bolts every half a towel or so. Something was off and I couldn't put my finger on the issue.  The rolled up raw cloth is sitting on the office shredder waiting for the desk to be clear so I can dig out the serger and secure the edges before wet finishing...

finally fixed and ready to warp up again

...doesn't look like 8 yards does it?

So with two looms coming empty I needed to start winding warps. I planned three or four actually and started winding. This meant the desk was being used for the warping mill and so the fringe twisting on the shawl had to wait.

its half way done at least...

more warps to wind, wheels to spin...

Another day saw a parcel arrive from Leclerc and new inserted eye heddles arrived for the Tissart tapestry loom and I spent an afternoon finagling the parts off the loom, cleaning them up and installing the new heddles.  So that's done..... but I also have two new apron cloths waiting to go on that loom so I'm not entirely finished with the Tissart. Not to mention actually getting the loom set up with a warp yet...

the white cloths patiently waiting to be installed...

Another day, another diversion. I enjoyed time spinning on the Rose wheel and working my way across a rainbow fleece. It must remain open and accessible so you can peel away the next section to spin, in order to get the rainbow effect. So that sits on top of the printer and the two wheels are by the door so I can take them outside.

I had a warp ready to be wound on to the Spring and another ready to go on the Megado.  Hubby came in yesterday morning to assist me and we got the longer eight yard cotton warp wound onto the Spring with no issues.  Love this little loom!

The Megado has a narrow warp of tencel waiting and I told him this won't take long..... and before we knew it  three hours had gone by and we were exhausted!  I casually mentioned the issue I was having with the loom and then he noticed some chaffing on the wood.  Long story short, it seems some carriage bolts were installed in the wrong locations and while the loom worked, it wasn't happy.  We identified the longer bolts and where they needed to go and thought we could take them out sequentially but its not that simple as we quickly discovered.

We end up removing the warp from the raddle, and then dismantling the back end of the loom, and then rebuilding it again.  It took some effort and patience but its all done now and fixed.  I even ended the day with the warp back being spread in the raddle again.    Most of the work needed to be done from floor level and finessing washers into tight spaces and lining up wooden parts, so it really needed both people working on the same page and cooperating.    We got it all done and stayed friends at the end of it all.  

warp being spread in the raddle again

So I have been busy and some might think a bit too busy (me included!) but stuff is happening and moving along.... if slowly!  I just pick a task and see how far I get with it but I have two active looms, and a third  nearly so, which means I have more to choose from !

Oh yeah.... and its summer with other outdoor distractions too.

Dragon Fly Wings

There is just so much going on this time of year!  The sun is out, vacationers are in town, special events are on and every day is busy.     That's a nice way of saying there not been much weaving of late.  To be fair, it is our first summer here and its so nice to enjoy it. Last year was all about healing from surgery, then all about selling, packing and moving.... which was all for the best, but it was a lot of stress and work.  

I do have a finished project for you though.    Its the third project in a series using the same threading and tie up as the previous posts of the two shawls and table cloth, but this time with some brighter colours..... and some amazing iridescence !  We have a pond behind our yard and so we have countless damsel and dragon flies everywhere. These scarves remind me of their wings.

So this is a twelve shaft point twill draft,   8/2 tencel sett at 24 epi and I used colours dark teal and amethyst together.  I tried a treadling variation which made for a nice change, but it also was hard to keep straight in my mind for some reason. I had to be very careful to keep it on track and watch for mistakes as I went along.

Where the fabric bends, the light changes and so does the colour. Its very silky and cool to the touch. I really enjoy working with tencel as it always satisfies the weavers inner need for drape, sheen and a darn good burst of colour.  I set Madge up by the climbing rose outside the studio and snapped some pictures.  They are nice but the sun was almost too harsh so I took her back indoors for some more  photographs in different lighting.

It almost looks like a whole new scarf with different colours!   I know its the same scarf as above as I only wove one with the treadling variation. 

It became more 'moody' and subdued, if you can call something like this subdued....

The second scarf was treadled in the same fashion as the shawls, so producing that neat little diamond and what I call a flower shape.   This time I paired the teal with red purple (magenta) and I expected some dazzling results..... and it didn't disappoint !

The picture above and below are taken outdoors in the sunshine. You can see the iridescent effect below where the fabric curves. 

The two pictures below were taken indoors in the studio with no flash ( as it bleaches the colour out). This colour scheme is by far the flashier of the two scarves woven. Which one do you prefer?  

Its time to switch things up around here.  I'm changing from weaving with  tencel to silks, using a new 'old' 12 shaft draft and a much finer focus at 36 epi.    I have been commissioned to weave two all silk scarves for a client and so I will weave a total of three so I have one for my etsy shop.

Here's one of the warp bouts on the mill and ready to come off.   This project already has an interesting story and I haven't even finished threading it yet.   The client wanted a blue based red as weft for one of the scarves and so I ordered a nice deep red on line .....and it arrived as an orange based red.  I should have known better about ordering reds based on a computer screen image.  So into the stash they went. The client found the colour she wanted and since the 'customer is always right'  😊  I ordered exactly what she wanted, only to find I had inadvertently ordered 60/2 silk instead of 30/2.  

My bad.  Into the stash they went too. 

I re-ordered the dyed silk and they rushed to get it done ahead of both of their two dyers leaving for a months vacation. *phew*   It arrived and is just lovely and the right size. 

My warp yarn is 30/2 black silk I bought from another weaver in California.   The difficulty with it started once I had ten to twenty warp ends wound and I could see the fine two ply yarn was scattered through out with little neps and noils. There was no sign of these 'fuzzies' on the surface of the cone of silk.  They picked off okay and in time maybe even wash out, but I could see how it would make the fine weaving ahead look like it was pilling.  This is not good at all as my client wants smooth and elegant.     I could go with a 20/ 2  charcoal black silk I have on hand in the stash but its not that inky jet black we wanted for this project.  

The weaver I bought this silk from was happy to take it back and give me an adjusted refund.  Then I lucked out and found a Canadian source for 30/2 black silk in Vancouver.... that's practically in my back yard. 

So I'm half way threading it and hoping all my 'woes' are done and I'll have smooth shuttling ahead. 

Smooth Operator!

This was as yummy as it looks! I baked this crustless quiche for our supper and Hubby thought it deserved a picture. Ham, mushrooms and Swiss Cheese with yellow bell pepper garnish. Its the Bisquick box recipe and I've been making it occasionally for 28 years and every one is different. This one lived up to it's great looks! :) Great hot or cold....

So now to what's happening here. Lots of garden work (post on that to come) and with an incoming heat wave promised by the weather forecasters that will slow progress there to just watering what has gone in as 'newbies'.

In the last post, I mentioned my new plain weave warps where the emphasis is on the colour. To repeat, it's 8/2 tencel set tightly at 36 epi, 5" wide woven and warp length of 72" for the two scarves in first red and then another warp in green. (I haven't counted the ppi.) I'm using 30/2 fine black silk as my weft. I get a rhythm going and gradually pick up speed...and then on autopilot I listen to my podcasts. Its pretty basic, but you know, it's actually a nice change of pace! I'll be ready for something a bit more challenging by the end of these four scarves.

Here's the second red under way. You can see that I just wound the variegated yarn as it came off the cake. I didn't try to pool the colours but will try next time.

The only thing that slowed me down was having to uncoil my hanging threads! I somehow missed two and they ride side by each. They tend to wrap themselves around each other and so I punch hole in a small piece of cardboard and thread the yarn through.

Keeps the 'Kids' neatly separated and no snarly messes! So two days and two scarves later, the next warp was quickly beamed and here's the green mix:

So olive was added to the black and Northern Lights. There is more than a touch of this green in the variegation and so it all pulls together nicely.

Here is the first portion of scarf number one! Um, I'd better give some thought to what is next at this pace and start winding! I'll then have four scarves and a shawl in the finishing pile so lots to do!

Show and tell to come when time allows. Are you doing summer weaving? Spinning outdoors? Heck, for those of you down under winter is prime weaving time and you don't have that nasty distraction we get in the middle of our winter *Christmas!* Only 171 days away!